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Alirghty, I woke up today to find that my starfish had died sometime yesterday, after a water change i tested my levels.
Ph 8.2
Carbonate hardness: 120ppm
Phosphate: .05-.1ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm
Calcium: 300-350ppm
Hardness: Ok heres where it gets realy weird, I started testing at 20ppm per drop after 73 drops i stopped the test. I tried it agin with 4 parts RO water and 1part tank water. I stopped at 60 drops this means the hardness is over 5000ppm.
I know my nitrAtes are a bit high but that is to be excepted after this very large starfish kicked it, A couple of water changes and a bit of extra calcium will sort the rest of the tank out but what of the extreme hardness?

could it be a bad test kit

True i'll test it against pure RO water

Nope one drop neutralises RO water, so its not the kit.

Have you mixed up a batch of new SW or tested your NSW for hardness?

I think about all you can do is water changes.....Let me sleep on it and do some digging tomorrow and see if I can come up with something.



[hr width='40%']Now who will be the one to dry my tears?
Who will be the one to chase away my fears?
Your love was like a guiding light
That kept me safe all day, all night.
Without you here in my life
I'm scared, I'm lost. Nothing is right

Ok well the NSW tested >1100ppm then i ran out of reagent. The lfs is closed so they can't help. This is going to take for ever to change out by mixing my own SW I'm trying to think of a quicker way to neutralise it but so far i've got nothing? Also what should the hardnes be at? I'm surprised my Blue Linka star is still alive? Or maybe they like water so hard you could crack a brick with it



Last edited by theaustralian at 08-May-2005 02:08

Scott, does your test kit have a conversion chart over to DKH? When i posted last night I didnt realise that you were measuring in PPM. Im still too tired to convert it over



[hr width='40%']Now who will be the one to dry my tears?
Who will be the one to chase away my fears?
Your love was like a guiding light
That kept me safe all day, all night.
Without you here in my life
I'm scared, I'm lost. Nothing is right

No worries, its >280dkh and i dont think thats a good thing

~Scott

nope, 280 DKH isnt normal...8-12 would be normal levels.

Id say keep up on the water changes and see what happens to the DKH. I honestly dont know what else to tell you to do other than water changes, but Ill keep researching and make some phone calls.



[hr width='40%']Your brown hair and your beautiful eyes
Just send chills down my spine.
The sight of you makes me weak.
My hands shiver, and I cannot speak.

Thanks mate, remember it could even be higher then 280, I ran out of kit!, I'm trying to think of a way to cause it to precipitate out then just filter it out. The fish, snails, blue star are all fine would you expect them to be dead by now?
Edit: Just a reminder this isn't carbonate hardness its total hardness.

~Scott

Last edited by theaustralian at 09-May-2005 01:19

One lfs says that Gh is irrevelvant in SW due to the high salt content whats up with that?